The present invention relates to a key cabinet for equipping an access control system. It also relates to an access control method and system using this key cabinet.
In current access control system, the management of access keys used by authorized persons is increasingly tending to include control of access to one or more key cabinets. In fact, in association with a main access control by badges, a key cabinet constitutes a useful complement for managing additional doors not managed by badge readers. There are already known, in particular from the documents FR2721734 and FR2717932, installations for the selective distribution and for the controlled retrieval of objects, of keys in particular.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 5038023 discloses a system for storing and monitoring keys provided with bar coded tags in a drawer.
The document EP0097538 discloses a system for managing a key panel, comprising means for successively reading and storing combinations and means for detecting the presence or absence of keys on said panel.
These installations make it possible to control and issue keys which are kept locked on a distribution panel and are released only after validation and authentication of an issue request. The key cabinets thus managed can be connected to a computer system and be associated with access and intrusion controls.
But when it is a matter of completing existing access control systems, in particular large systems, in practice it proves difficult to make the data related to the monitoring of the movements of keys within a key cabinet consistent with the flow of access control data generated within a pre-existing access control system. The key cabinet is therefore often perceived as a specific peripheral and the data associated with it are also subjected to specific processing. This gives rise to additional costs in terms of the installation and the writing of specific interface software.